Give it Time
by MakoRain
Summary: Tifa loves Cloud, Cloud loves Tifa, the story goes on and on...but will love be enough to keep them together? Oneshot, CloTi.


A/N: Hello again. This was originally part of My Soundtrack series but I decided it stands well on its own as a one shot. The song influence is "What hurts the most" by Rascal Flats for thos interested. As Always, R& R, it's much appreciated ^_^

"**Give It Time"**

By MakoRain

He did not love her.

Tifa knew he felt something for her but it wasn't love. A deep infatuation perhaps; they had known each other for a long time. Cloud had a crush on her when they were growing up, this could be an attempt to carry it on and she did appreciate the effort but she didn't want a lie. She loved him with everything she had to give and if she wasn't his everything she would rather be nothing at all to him.

No, that wasn't true; she couldn't live without contact with him, even if it was just an unanswered phone call now and then. His sense of something more than friendship but less than love couldn't hold them together so it was her job to stop cheating themselves.

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It had all started in that magical way love does. Looking at her in the church with the children splashing water all around and standing before her, he had smiled. She had smiled back and then he was holding her, enveloping her small form in a gentle embrace, whispering in her ear, "I'm back."

The cheers were deafening but his words rang true as he took his family home. Cloud moved back into Seventh Heaven as if he'd never left, making deliveries and playing with the children and spending more time with her than ever before.

The night he had told her he loved her had been perfect, complete with intimate fulfillment. He'd had so much passion and love for her she didn't think she could take anymore but every touch and kiss made her whole. The first words she heard from Cloud waking up and before bed were a hushed "I love you" in her ear and it made her shiver every time.

But lately those words were head less and less as he went on more deliveries for longer periods of time to where it was almost nonexistent for him to show his love. He held her now only when they were asleep, no more cuddling or touching just because they were near each other and could not help to be in contact. His kisses once so deep became pecks that were over before she knew it, no longer able to feel his taste linger on her lips.

Now he was always in a rush, leaving randomly without answering her questions of where he was going or when he would return. She didn't want to be the nagging girlfriend but she was worried about him always out doing god knows what getting into danger. Tifa couldn't take it, not knowing when he would leave if it would be the last time she saw him.

Cloud's arm tightened around her waist as these thoughts ran through her restless mind and his action pulled at her heart, knowing she had to do something she would never think possible. Instead, she broke the silence with a question that had weighed her down for far too long.

"Do you love me?"

He shifted closer behind her, his face in her hair and his breath tickling her ear.

"You know I do."

Tears threatened her voice, wavering a bit. "Do I?"

Cloud moved again, this time leaning on his elbow to look over her shoulder.

"You should."

He sounded as distant as she felt and the tears wouldn't stay back any longer, leaving a trail down her cheek to her pillow. If he wouldn't have been watching her face, he would never have known she was crying until a soft sob escaped and her shoulders shook.

"Tifa, what is it?" he asked softer than before.

She didn't answer, only crying more while he pulled on her arm to turn her towards him and held her close. She cried into his bare chest, not wanting to lose him but knowing no other way.

"I love you so much," she managed through her sniffling and he wiped the tears away with his hand.

"I know you do, so why the tears?" he said quieter still, uncomfortable with her crying but more so because he felt it was his fault, which it was.

"I don't think you love me the way I love you." Tifa replied with her voice clearer now as her tears subsided.

"How could you think that? After everything we've been through Teef, you have to know I love you."

"Then why the late night jobs? You're making so many deliveries that I hardly see you anymore."

"Oh, that, well…" Cloud drifted off, scratching his head in his nervous way she found adorable any other time but not right now.

"I miss you." Tifa twisted her fingers together in her nervous habit he thought was cute but now it made him fidgety, her ring twirling around her finger.

"I know, I just…there's something I have to do."

He placed his hand over hers, ceasing their motions and pulling her to him once again.

"I do love you and always will. Just trust me, okay?"

His fingers caressed her cheek and she sighed at his light touch. After all they had been through, he had earned her trust, hadn't he? She trusted him to do the right thing, to be there in her time of need, to help when he was the only hope. Tifa nodded her head and snuggled into his chest, relying on her trust to hold it all together.

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It didn't last long.

Little by little she could feel Cloud pulling farther and farther away. He started sleeping at the church when he could only be in town for a few hours instead of days to try and 'protect' her emotionally but it only hurt her more. Didn't he know seeing him for any amount of time would hold her together instead of not seeing him at all?

I guess not, she thought crying for the last time over Cloud as she locked the door to her room, not letting him in anymore to break apart her heart and leave her with only pieces of her former self.

Cloud knew things were changing. He was gone all the time and Tifa didn't understand. Asking for her trust was more than he'd ever thought of asking before. He had left her so many times, for years and then days as the time passed, riding Fenrir throughout the lands and for what? _I'm doing this for us, Tifa. Don't you see that?_ His mind was restless, these thoughts not helping any. He wouldn't lose Tifa, not now and not ever. He was so close, just a little more…

His hand closed around their room's handle but the door wouldn't open. It was locked. Cloud placed his hand on the door, wanting to see her but not wanting to force himself in.

"Tifa"

"Cloud." Her voice was soft and muffled through the wood separating the two.

This was his chance to tell her everything, to tell her that he loved her, he'd be home to stay…he was so close. But the words wouldn't come for whatever reason. Not the right ones anyways.

"Please, give me some time."

His footsteps echoed down the hall, not waiting for her to reply and she watched his shadow disappear from her doorstep.

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Much too long after realizing Cloud did not love her and could not love her the way she needed him, Tifa came to a conclusion. It was something she never thought possible but here she was, thinking it anyway.

_What happened to us, Cloud? Things used to be different. There were times when we would be able to talk about anything, anything at all…our hopes, our dreams, us. Where did all of that go? How could we go from being something so special, so complete, to this? To where we see each other with so much to say and yet you turn around and walk away, leaving me behind. I'm tired of watching you go._

_We were so close, you know? I guess we didn't have enough to take that last step, and I could be okay with that, or at least pretend to be okay, if I only knew why. Why did it have to be like this? We'll never know what could have been and it hurts. It'll be hard moving on, getting up, getting dressed, as if nothing ever happened, that those times of my life with you were nothing more than a memory. _

There were good times and bad times, but I'll keep all of it, every single laugh and tear will stay with me, even if it doesn't stay with you. Loving you, that's all I was trying to do and I'll still love you, but not like this. This is a lie that I am tired of living and so it's my turn to walk away.

It took her time to grasp this concept, almost as much time as it took Cloud to notice something had to be done, but the question was, did they both have the same time in mind?

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Time comes and goes, it's always slipping by and time can tear you apart. Cloud knew this and he had almost lost Tifa those two years he had lost himself but she had been patient more or less and waited for him. Well, it was time…no more waiting.

He patted his pocket nervously and was relieved to find her door unlocked, swinging it open to enter and closing it softly behind him. Tifa sat on the side of her bed, facing the window with her back turned and Cloud faltered, not moving an inch. He didn't deserve her; not this woman before him, a fallen angel suffering from his lack of affection…attention…love. But he _did_ love her. That got him moving again and before he could question himself further he was kneeling before her wide eyes.

Shock was reflecting in Cloud's eyes as well as her own and she didn't know what to think. He wasn't always predictable….reliable…but he also wasn't spontaneous. This must have taken some thought.

"I wanted to wait for the perfect moment."

All she could do was look at him, waiting for the words that seemed to block his throat with the weight of their worth until he swallowed nervously, trying to push them back down in his chest. They wouldn't budge, and the only way to get rid of them was to get them out; he had been holding them in for far too long.

"I wanted to hear the rain on the roof when I asked you this."

He was still kneeling in front of her and adding that with a question made her nervous. What was he doing? Did he even know? He looked so…worried and yet sure that he had to do this and so she waited, as she always did. Waiting for him was her life.

"Tifa…we've known each other a long time…"

Cloud paused, taking a deep breath. This isn't that hard, a simple question, and yet the words refused to move. He pulled his hand through his hair nervously as he always did when stalling or trying to come up with some way to say what needed to be said; he was never articulate but now was a time he would get the words out, he had to.

As if an answer to a prayer, Tifa took his hands in hers and calmly looked him in the eye even though her heart was beating a mile a minute. She didn't know exactly what he wanted to say but she would try to help him…he'd never been good with a way of words.

"Yes, Cloud, what is it? You can tell me anything, you know that."

His smile broke through even as his hands were clammy in her grasp, fingers unable to fidget entwined with hers and he was thankful for it. A few more deep breaths and he figured he was ready.

"I love you, Tifa, and I know these last few months have been…difficult. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you, if you will let me."

Not quite what she had expected but the words were there and it made her relax a little. She loosened the grip on his hands and he moved one to his pocket. What he pulled out she was not ready for right away and all she could do was blink, for in his hand was a red velvet box. A box the perfect size for a ring. The small yet simple diamond sparkled set in its sterling silver band with the pale moonlight streaming through the window.

Tifa couldn't breathe. All she could do was stare and eye the ring in awe. So this is what he had been doing? And to think she almost ended everything, believing there was nothing left. Tears formed in her eyes and she told herself she would never cry in happy times but she failed as they trailed down her cheeks.

"Hey, it's okay. This is supposed to be a good thing."

That made her smile with a giggle that turned into a snort before she was able to speak.

"Thank you."

Now that threw him off…why would she be thanking him for something she hadn't agreed or disagreed too yet?

"What? Why?"

"For everything. And I don't want a lifetime of you making up to me…you don't need to. What I would like is a lifetime of love and as much joy as possible."

His face beamed as realization dawned on him. "I'll spend my life and longer making sure you have as much love and joy as possible."

There was a moment of contentment as both of them let all that had happened settle in. The silence was broken by Cloud yet again, which had to be the most time he'd spoken to her in weeks.

"So is that a yes?"

"Of course that's a yes!" Tifa squealed and smacked him on the shoulder before jumping into his arms, hugging him tightly. They sat on the floor, holding each other until Cloud kissed her softly, the kind of kiss she had managed without for so long. It was a kiss that signaled the end of something they had once had and the beginning of everything else to come for a better life, one full of happiness and most of all, love.

As it was meant to be.


End file.
